Welcome to Gaia! ::

The man's eyes sparkled brightly. "Thank you very much," he said warmly. He looked at his sister. "Now Lily, how about some introductions?" he winked at her. "I assume you're in a position to do that, since you're leading them around."

Lily stuck her tongue out at her brother. "Yes, yes." She introduced the family, then added, "And this is my brother, Corazin." Then she turned back to her brother. "Andarien wanted to come here ... I think he likes gears or something, look at him."

Corazin eyed the awe-struck boy and chuckled. It certainly looked like that was the case to him.

"Really?" Corazin looked at Andarien thoughtfully. "Now that's interesting. Does he make things with gears, then?"

"Some," Earendil replied, "though ... he hasn't got many of them, so he's very limited in what he can do."

Lily was eying her brother. "What are you thinking, Corazin?" she asked him quietly.

He glanced at her briefly. "Just that I had to let my apprentice go last week ... and I'm now in need of a new one."

"Though ... with how quickly Andarien picks up on most things, he could learn quite a bit," Earendil pointed out. "And some education is still better than none at all." He looked at Corazin. "If you don't mind that you might not be able to complete an apprenticeship, that is," he added.

Corazin chuckled softly. "I have to be honest," he admitted, "at this point, I'm desperate for any apprentice who shows any sort of promise. The last four I've tried didn't have the passion ... or the skill, even after sometimes more than a year or two of working with me."

"Then with your permission, I'll ask him," Corazin smiled widely.

Earendil chuckled and nodded. "If you can get his attention," he grinned. Then he held up one hand. "Wait, before you do ... there is one stipulation. His cousin will be coming in a week or two and we've asked him to give Andarien lessons in self-defense, so he'll need to take time out from his apprenticeship for that."

"Done," Corazin agreed readily. "No one should work at the same thing all day long anyways." He paused and eyed Andarien. "Hm. So ... how do we go about getting his attention?"

Andarien had been leaning close to the musical mechanical dragon to try to figure out on his own how it worked without touching it, but at Lin's touch he looked up at her over his shoulder.

"Nana, look!" he exclaimed, grabbing her hand and tugging her closer to the music box. He pointed at a tiny space below the dragon where a rod moved back and forth, suspending the dragon above the base. "See? Look at the gears in there! They're bigger than I thought they would be! You know what that means? That means that there aren't as many gears in there as I thought there would be, and it wouldn't be as hard as I thought it would be!"

He had pushed his goggles up onto his forehead to see better, and now he pulled his cap from his head and held it in his hands so that it wouldn't block the light.

Andarien looked up at Lin and blinked in astonishment.

"He wants to ask me something?" he repeated incredulously. "That doesn't make sense, I'm supposed to ask him questions!"

Corazin chuckled and came out from behind the counter. "Well, odd as it may seem, I do have questions for you," he grinned. "You like clockwork, then?"

Andarien nodded vigorously. "I sure do!" he beamed.

Corazin laughed again. "Well, I'm glad to hear that," he chuckled. "Do you know what an apprentice is?"

Andarien blinked and shook his head.

Andarien nodded slowly, but his brow furrowed slightly in confusion.

"What does that have to do with me?" he asked, turning back to Corazin and looking up at him.

Corazin smiled. "Well, as it turns out, I'm in need of an apprentice," he explained. "And I saw how much you liked the clockwork, so I was wondering ... how would you feel about being my apprentice while you're in the city? I know you have to go traveling later on, and that you'll also have other training to do, but if you'd like, I can teach you all I know about clockwork - from building the gears, to putting together entire creations."

Andarien stared at the man for a moment without reacting, as if he hadn't heard, or hadn't understood. Then he blinked and stared some more. Then, as it finally sunk in what was being offered to him, his jaw dropped, and he turned to Lin and threw his arms around her waist and looked up at her pleadingly.

"Can I, Nana? Can I? Please? Please? I promise I'll keep up with all my other lessons and I'll work hard when Kaito gets here and I'll take good care of myself and I'll be really REALLY good! I promise! Can I? Please? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?"